You have requested a page we are unable to serve. Please return to another area of our site by clicking on the Nortek Security & Control logo button above to reach our home page. We have recently updated our site and changed many of our pages to provide a higher level of service to our customers.Edit ArticleHow to Prevent Air Conditioner Theft Air conditioning units contain a large amount of valuable copper that well-trained thieves can strip from your system within minutes to sell as scrap metal. As a homeowner, an air conditioning theft can be devastating as it leaves you uncomfortable and at a loss of your expensive investment. Here are proven methods for deterring would-be thieves and protecting your air conditioning unit. Purchase an air conditioning cage. Purchase an air conditioning alarm. Place an eye in the sky. FOR OUR NEWSLETTERThe Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)–a group founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and designated as a terrorist organization in the UAE–is concerned that damage to a Manassas, VA mosque’s air conditioning unit is a result of a possible anti-Muslim “bias motive,” the group said in two separate press releases from its national branch this week.

One statement came before and one a day after the slaughter of four Marines in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by Kuwaiti-born Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. CAIR, which claims to be an advocacy group for American Muslims, has taken a deep-dive into the investigation, dedicated national resources towards finding out the possible motives behind the purported vandalism to the Virginia mosque’s air conditioning unit. CAIR warned that the purported vandalism to an air conditioning unit was a sign that security needs to be stepped up for Friday’s Eid ul-Fitr prayers, which commemorates the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. CAIR’s 2nd press release on the air conditioning unit mystery read: CAIR is urging mosques and Muslim community leaders nationwide to step up security for Friday’s end-of Ramadan Eid ul-Fitr (EED-al-FITTER) (“feast of fast breaking”) holiday prayers by requesting a local law enforcement presence in the vicinity of any public prayers or holiday gatherings.

CAIR’s Communications Director, Ibrahim Hooper, said Tuesday after the first incident of alleged vandalism against the air conditioning line: “Because of the effort required to sever the air conditioning lines, the history of previous incidents targeting the mosque and the rise in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide, we believe it is essential that law enforcement authorities investigate a possible bias motive for this vandalism.”my outside ac unit will not shut off CAIR has alleged that the Manassas, VA mosque has been targeted by evil-doers who shout slurs such as, “Go back home.”my window ac unit keeps freezingAC ARMOR provides high quality commercial and residential air conditioner cages that offer you peace of mind. hvac units online sales

AC Armor has developed a solution to protect its customers from air conditioning theft and vandalism. We provide cost-effective security products with easy installation for residential, commercial or enterprise properties. Our commitment is to provide you with the quality service you deserve. Give us a call today at 1-877-902-7667 for a free consultation. ARMOR FOR YOUR AIR CONDITIONERTENERIFE, Spain—There are many ways we know of to cause a blackout. You could hack industrial equipment to spin a generator out of control. You could hijack operator machines and remotely open breakers. Or you could launch a sniper assault on substations and shoot out transformers. Now researchers have found another way to take down the power grid: by remotely manipulating home and office air conditioners to create a surge. It’s an attack that grid experts told WIRED has the potential to be very serious. The hack targets remote shut-off devices that utility companies install on air conditioners to conserve energy during peak summer periods.

Many power companies offer discounts to customers if they agree to install the devices, which let the utility company remotely turn off their air conditioner when it’s hot outside and demand for power is high. The devices, which can be installed on both central air conditioning systems as well as window-installed units, can be easily manipulated by hackers, say Vasilios Hioureas of Kaspersky Lab and Thomas Kinsey of Exigent Systems, who conducted their research as part of the Securing Smart Cities initiative. The two presented their findings today at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit. The way the system works is that operators at regional power centers send a command via radio frequency that gets amplified through repeater stations installed throughout a city to reach the devices and shut down air conditioners. But because the systems Hioureas and Kinsey examined don’t encrypt that communication and don’t use authentication to prevent unauthorized parties or systems from communicating with them, anyone in the vicinity who can emit a stronger signal than the one the utility company sends out through the repeater stations can manipulate the devices as well.

“Anyone with $50 can generate a signal that can trump a repeater [to take out a few air conditioners]; and anyone with $150 can generate that through an [amplifier] and presumably take out a whole neighborhood,” says Kinsey. “And obviously you can scale that up as much as you want to [depending on the strength of your signal].” A hacker could directly attack a group of homes or offices by taking advantage of the fact that unique IDs are assigned to groups of devices, allowing them to be singled out. A hacker could cut air conditioners during a heatwave—creating a potentially fatal condition for the elderly and sick—or turn air conditioners on during peak energy periods, causing a surge that creates a widespread blackout. Or a hacker could directly attack a group of specific homes or offices by taking advantage of the fact that unique IDs are assigned to groups of devices, allowing them to be singled out. According to another researcher, the hack could be even worse.

If an attacker were to turn the air conditioners on and off repeatedly, the could create disturbances and imbalances in the grid that could trip breakers beyond the neighborhood they’re targeting and cause an even more widespread blackout. “This is bad, and that’s why we need better security so that we don’t have the ability to manipulate the load,” says Eric Johansson, founder of Management Doctors, a security firm in Sweden that specializes in SCADA. “You shouldn’t be able to do this.” The attack against the devices requires little skill. All a hacker would need is to be on the same radio frequency as the utility company, and then they could monitor and record the commands the company sends to the devices (a technique known as sniffing). From there, they could just play back those recorded commands to other devices to get them to turn on or off (a so-called “replay” attack). “This is the funny part, to show how ridiculously insecure it really is, you don’t have to even know anything or reverse-engineer anything and you can reproduce the result [by doing a replay attack],” says Hioureas.